In the last few months the Park County commissioners have tried to address concerns from neighbors at a couple of properties in the county that have excess vehicles parked onsite and materials some, at least, consider junk. 

So far, the commissioners have shown restraint, giving owners time to make improvements to their properties rather than diving straight into fines. 

With one property in rural Powell, commissioners recently even agreed to continue holding off on penalties that had come before the commissioners for consideration late last year, due to a majority at least agreeing the property owner had made progress in cleaning up the property. 

One property in question on Lane 10 in Powell has been on the county radar for nearly 20 years as staff reports from the recent issue mention the property owner started collecting “vehicle/junk/other storage”  from 2006-2013.

At a January meeting, commissioner Scott Steward noted that anyone needs a salvage license to be able to store and then sell salvaged vehicles from the property, something this property owner doesn’t have.  

After a notice of violation letter was sent in 2010, the property owner reportedly sold some of the vehicles and built a barrier using wooden pallets and dirt to keep the items visible from the county road. Objects deemed as junk, such as inoperable cars, can be considered a nuisance if visible from a county road per county regulations. 

“What’s visible from the county road is what we need to worry about,” commissioner Lloyd Thiel said. 

More recently, complaints from neighbors in the area led to the county going out to the property again to investigate. 

When first brought before the commissioners last fall, the landowner explained he’s working to clean up and sell the property but had been slowed by injuries. Commissioners agreed to let him and people he had helping to show work had been done to clean up the property, and then be brought back before the board in January to see if the work was indeed proceeding. 

Planning and zoning staff checked on the property and took pictures of the updated look, and commissioners determined  he  had done enough work to avoid penalties, although they required him to allow county staff to take pictures of the property within the next few days so they could compare that to the property at the next check in. 

“This way, if he's made significant progress, we'll have the evidence,” Steward said. 

In early January, commissioners also gave time to clean up to a property owner and her family on Shoshone River Drive in Cody who had stored unused vehicles and other reported scrap. 

At the end of that discussion, just before voting to give the property owner time to clean up before penalties, commissioner Scott Mangold said they needed to be ready to enact penalties if progress was not seen. 

“This is not the only property in the county we've had a number of complaints about,” he said. “Around Powell I hear there's no teeth. I think this would send a message — a fine should be put together. But there’s an opportunity to clean up some of these properties, because I do feel for these neighbors.”